Offline Strategies Online Marketers Need

The customer is king, all marketers and business owners know this. Without consumers watching the ads and buying the products there would be no need for advertising agencies or big brand names. With all of the technology at hand, customers must be treated well, right? Wrong.

by Kristina Knight

At least that is one finding from a study on customer relationships from research firm Accenture. According to the study, 62% of consumers said technology has not helped customer relations. Other key findings include: customers are speaking to more than one service representative (87%), customers switch stores/providers because of bad customer service (50%) and customers feel better about service when they aren’t sent to several representatives (34%).

One change that many customer service departments have done to try to meet customer needs is change to automated responders – this is not the right thing to do according to the study.

Instead online retailers and marketers need to create a data warehouse filled with specific client information, and that information needs to be readily accessible by customer service agents.

This type of information could also be used to better target the customer. For example, once they have shown a preference for certain brands, special offers could be displayed on their computer screen when they visit an online store. Email ads could be focused according to customer likes and dislikes.

By better targeting ads, marketers are more likely to please the customer from the start. Also, having all of the relevant information available from the beginning of the call is more likely to appease customers who call or email for help.